{"id":2959,"date":"2023-05-04T07:20:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T11:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:17:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:17:38","slug":"fidelity-looks-ahead-to-the-metaverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deeds.com\/articles\/fidelity-looks-ahead-to-the-metaverse\/","title":{"rendered":"Fidelity Looks Ahead \u2013 To the Metaverse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Building a FinTech Powerhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Fidelity launched its Metaverse exchange-traded fund \u2014 the ETF with the ticker symbol FMET.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fidelity Metaverse Index tracks the current development of a future internet. According to Fidelity\u2019s website, the metaverse<\/a> will blend \u201caugmented reality and virtual worlds\u201d and enable many people to be work, play, and invest in these settings, \u201cpersistently and in a shared environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds like a projection of our current lives. But in the metaverse, we\u2019ll enjoy experiences remotely, whenever we\u2019re ready. As Andrew Kiguel, CEO of metaverse property investment firm known as Tokens.com<\/em>, told CNBC<\/em><\/a>: \u201cYou can go to a carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidelity believes in the metaverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s in Fidelity\u2019s Metaverse Basket<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Fidelity Metaverse Index is focused on companies doing metaverse development, and virtual products and services. Fidelity is, no doubt, thinking about its profile among young, digitally focused investors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What companies does Fidelity think are poised for Web3 success? Fidelity lists its five top-ranked metaverse companies in the FMET portfolio<\/a> as Tencent, Google, Apple, Nintendo, and Adobe \u2014 with Meta (Facebook) and AI leader Nvidia following close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, metaverse-making is a global trend. The holdings at this time are about 45% North American (mainly U.S.) corporations, an equal amount of Asian (mainly Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean) companies, and about 9% European (mainly French) innovators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, Fidelity is also becoming a metaverse bet. Until competitors such as Schwab and Vanguard appear on the metaverse radar, Fidelity is a leading Web3 presence, along with JP Morgan, the first financial group to open a metaverse lounge. (\u201cVirtual real estate ownership is one area JP Morgan is eyeing,\u201d wrote FinTech Magazine<\/em><\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidelity Files for Virtual-World Trademarks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year, Fidelity filed 16 digital payment and metaverse trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office \u2014 including for fund investment services. The company refers to its intellectual property quest as important for \u201cmeeting customers where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating avatars to meet its 40 million investors in virtual spaces will be cheaper than maintaining physical offices. But will current and future customers come?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how will the opportunities look after the regulators get their bearings and start laying down the law? No one can say just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest question used to be whether the metaverse concept is a flash in the pan. But Goldman Sachs calls the metaverse an $8 trillion global opportunity. Potential markets include real-estate showings, online education, and immersive worlds replacing the mobile phase of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidelity is willing and able to invest in this potential, and has vast compliance knowledge. Moreover, virtual financial management doesn\u2019t need to be universally accepted for Fidelity\u2019s investments to pay off. For now, Fidelity can boast its virtual street cred as the leader in metaverse fund investing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidelity\u2019s Virtual Reality Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few highlights so far from Fidelity\u2019s virtual-reality preparations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n